It is finished.
Pigs are flying first class. Climate change hit hell, got it looking like Buffalo in February. New York City has a well-loved mayor and an NBA championship. The old world is dead. The new world is born. The monsters in-between? KO’d. They dunno what him ‘em.
1 loss in 51 days. A 16-3 playoff romp. A 15-1 closing run. A nine-game road win streak. Closing out four series on the road. The road to the New York Knicks’ first championship since 1973 began against a team with an invisible
Frenchman and former #1 overall draft pick and ended against the team with the most visible former #1 overall pick Frenchman. It took them to Georgia and Pennsylvania and Ohio and Texas. It took them 44 minutes to take the lead last night. Once they did, they never let go.
Was it irony? Destiny? The will and whim of the basketball gods? That the 2026 Knicks, having proved time and again that they’re the best Knick team since fill-in-the-blank, would reach the last leg of a race that’s been run for 53 years, only to find themselves looking like the runners-up teams of the past?
The four starters not named Jalen shot 13-of-39. The bench went scoreless until the last minute of the third quarter. San Antonio was winning the points in the paint and the second-chance scores. The only time Karl-Anthony Towns wasn’t in foul trouble was after he fouled out. The best team all spring sprung some leaks.
So Jalen Brunson did what was needed.
On a night the Knicks missed 13 of 14 first-quarter 2-pointers, Brunson finished 10-of-2o inside the arc. On a night the other Knicks and Spurs were a combined 20-of-67 from deep, Brunson was 4-of-7. On a night the other team made 12 free throws, Brunson drained 13. On a night the Knicks needed Bernard King to lift them up, needed Patrick Ewing, needed Carmelo Anthony, Brunson was all them, all that and more.
But on this night, Brunson also needed his mates to give whatever they could, all that they could. So they did what was needed.
KAT only lasted 23 minutes, but in that time he grabbed 10 boards, had three steals and presented a constant scoring and spacing threat that the Spurs couldn’t ignore. In fewer minutes than Towns, Mitchell Robinson also hauled in 10 rebounds, six offensive, including the decisive one after a Josh Hart missed free throw with 22 seconds left, ultimately leading the Knicks to go up two possessions.
Hart won two defensive rebounds in the final minute, standing 6-foot-4 but looking more 7-foot-4 at that stage than Victor Wembanyama. He was also involved in a key moment late in the first half, scoring what seemed an impossible and-one that was upgraded to a flagrant foul on Fox. After Hart made the free throw, Mikal Bridges added a jumper to make it a 5-point possession, cutting an eight-point gap to three.
On a night the Knicks spent much of (not) scoring like it was 1999, the exchange rate says Bridges’ 14 points and four dimes were worth 20 and six in 2026 currency; he also held Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox scoreless when defending them. OG Anunoby saved the day with a couple of last-man-standing defensive stands against Dylan Harper transition drives. OG also kept the quick but down Fox under wraps. Some Spurs fans sound ready to tar and feather Fox. I wonder how many of them could if they’d suffered the same high ankle sprain he did in May.
On a night the bench shot 19% from the floor, a friend texted me in the second half asking if I’d yank Landry Shamet, scoreless to that point. I said I’d give him some run. While his efforts last night won’t rise to to the level of Brunson’s legend, when the fourth quarter rolled around and the Knicks made their last title-winning push only two scored more one bucket: Brunson and Shamet, who hit a big 3 and a tough driving lay-up after which he landed awkwardly. Had to go back to the locker room. Thought he was done. Should’ve known better.
With a little over three minutes left, after three Brunson free throws gave New York the lead, Fox missed a jumper that Mitch rebounded. Spurs coach Mitch Johnson (unrelated) quickly told his team to foul Robinson, but Knicks coach Mike Brown even more quickly called timeout, subbing in KAT and thus avoiding the dreaded (but more effective than not in this series) Hack-A-Mitch endgame. By the time Towns fouled out, the game was in the last two minutes, at which point Robinson’s dignity was assured.
Even Ariel Hukporti had a highlight contribution. At a time when the Knick reserves had been outscored 24-0, Hukporti brought the funk and the noise from the other end, flying from out of nowhere for an incredible recovery block at the rim on Luke Kornet. The former Knick big did not have an exemplary Finals. The Spurs will surely look to upgrade at the backup 5 spot. They could do worse than the second-best German #55 in Knick history.
I wrote many moons ago that this is the best Knick team I’d ever seen. Life makes the fastest sense to me through parallels, patterns, precedent. My brain is a library of Alexandria of sports stories and arcs. During their playoff run, I started running out of precedents. Cognitively, I could appreciate that. If something you’ve never seen before happens, of course it’s going to look unfamiliar. That’s what it is!
With two minutes and forty seconds left in the fourth, I suddenly started tearing up. Nothing remarkable had happened. It was a one-point game; the Knicks were about to miss a shot. But I started losing it anyway. I recognized why, even while recognizing it was something I’d never seen before. Througout the game, throughout the past two months, I wondered if I was seeing it. I wanted to be. By the fourth I was certain I was seeing it.
I was seeing the Knicks win the championship. When a Spurs shot would go up and clang off the rim, or there’d be a 50/50 ball rolling around, my dreams and my reality synced up into one perfect vision. I didn’t hope the Knicks would get the ball; I knew that they would. I knew before it happened that what I was seeing, what I was about to be seeing, was what I’d remember and what I’d re-watch the rest of my life. I was seeing the Knicks win it all.
Sometimes it really is written in the stars. The Knicks, led by the son of a Knick, drafted #33. The Knicks, winners of their first trophy since Red Holzman, doing it on 6/13; Holzman’s 613 hangs in the MSG rafters. The universe unfolds as it must.
Quoth SayAgainSayAgain, “Everyone knows we’re gonna do it.” They’re quoting Wembanyama there, who is young and promising but also needs to cut down on the dirty play and lack of accountability. Mark Messier guaranteed a Game 6 win and scored a Game 6 hat trick. Wemby guaranteed a 3-1 series comeback, shot 37% in another come-from-ahead L and walked off the court without shaking anybody’s hand. Maybe a hook shot isn’t where his offseason should center. Maybe the Shaolin monks can teach him something greater.
But apply that quote to the Knicks and just like Dave DeBusschere then and OG/KAT/Bridges now, it’s a perfect fit. This is my 13th year writing recaps. They always end with “Next game is . . . ” Not this time. There is no next game. No next year. There’s just the New York Knicks, NBA champions. It is finished. And it is forever.
